[hackerspaces] Taxonomy of maker spaces

[tetsu yatsu]

Talking to potential landlords, I settled on a few descriptions of our needs
as a hackerspace. Choose analogs that will fit with what you're looking for.


Sometimes I call it a non-profit workshop, since most landlords are familiar
with that. Warehouse landlords around here are used to people leasing space
for dance/ballet classrooms. We're not a dance school, but the facilities
have things in common. Workshop explains what resources we are looking for,
and what impact they can expect by having us as tenants.

Since this Florida, and there are rich people who send their kids to art
college and have this artificially inflated appreciation for modern art, I
describe us as an Art Collective to some people. Especially to art students
and art-focused potential investors.

As a nonprofit seeking donations from large institutions, they pay more
attention to what you call yourself than how democratic and wishy-washy your
explanations are.

Your hackerspace will be different things to different people. It fits into
many categories, and it's nice to have a reference to give people who don't
understand without handing them a copy of "The Hacker Ethic" or sitting them
down for a 2 hour primer course. Have a good, concise, thorough explanation
of what you think of it displayed on your website. I even thought maybe on
each User page on our wiki we'd have everyone describe what they think the
space is, a democratic collaborative definition.
On Fri, Oct 23, 2009 at 4:24 AM, Koen Martens <gmc at sonologic.nl> wrote:

> Hya,
>
> On Thu, Oct 22, 2009 at 01:41:09PM -0700, Jerry Isdale wrote:
> > So as a help to noobs like me, I'd like to discuss some of the terms
> > used for various biz models for the generic term of 'Maker Space'.
> > Terms like hackerspace, fab lab, tech shop, and names for variants
> > outside those.
>
> I have been asking myself 'what is a hackerspace' a lot lately, because i'm
> just starting one and need to explain this to eg. potential landlord. I
> don't
> think there is one single answer, this is already evident in the great
> number
> of different hackerspaces: some nothing more than an office unit, others in
> multi-story buildings with rooms varying in function, others not having
> their
> own space at all..
>
> Ask anyone on this list what a hackerspace is, and you are likely to get
> very different answers.
>
> I, for one, would not want to come up with a single, fits-all definition of
> the term, simply because that would deny the great variety that makes all
> these spaces so interesting!
>
> Gr,
>
> Koen
>
> _______________________________________________
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> Discuss at lists.hackerspaces.org
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>
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